Is it a possibility that

By George Smith

Hmmmm.

Would it even be in the realm of possibility that Ex-President Donald J. Trump executed a fistful of pocket pardons for himself, family members and    a couple of the wretched faithful like Rudy Guiliani?

Is that ever possible?

Newsweek headline:

“Michael Cohen Thinks Donald Trump Issued Secret Pardons for Himself, His Children and Giuliani”

Story:

Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Sunday expressed his belief that the ex-president had issued pardons for himself, his children and Rudy Giuliani before leaving office.

Trump granted last-minute pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70, including Steve Bannon and rapper Kodak Black. But his list did not include preemptive pardons for himself, his family or Giuliani.

Cohen told MSNBC host Alex Witt that he started to ponder why the former president didn’t issue pardons for himself, his children or Giuliani after “knowing Donald Trump for well over a decade.”

“I started thinking to myself it doesn’t really make sense because it’s not like Donald Trump, so what am I missing?” he said.

Cohen concluded that Trump could have already pardoned himself, his children and Giuliani in secret, in what he referred to as “pocket pardons.”

Definition:

A “pocket pardon” is also known as a “secret pardon”.

When Presidents issue pardons, there are no explicit instructions in the Constitution stating that they need to publicize the names of the people that they are pardoning.

So, in theory, a President could issue “secret pardons” that would only surface if:

1) The person that is pardoned is charged with a federal crime in the future

2) The President, or a future President, decides to make the pardons public

So, in theory, a President could issue a “pocket pardon” to anybody, including himself.

This has never been done before (that anybody knows of), and scholars have been debating the legality of the “pocket pardon”.

Hmmmm.

Never been done before? That has “Trump” written all over it.

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Witch Hunt

By George Smith

You’ve heard those words scores of times…in tweets, pass-along Facebook posts, from uninformed, misguided and/or delusional Trump supporters, and from the former president himself.

The term “witch hunt”, In this case, now, today, is officially a “witch hunt”.

Which? Civil or criminal investigation?

Which? State or federal?

Which? Who or what is the investigation target?

Donald Trump is not the original “Teflon Don”; that title rests solely on

the shoulders of the late mafia honcho John Gotta of New York. Gotta dodged numerous state and federal investigations toward the end of his crime boss career until he was sentenced to a life term for a variety of crimes including murder in 1992.

Trump, while not a true mafioso, ran a series of scams and tax dodges in New York for decades. He was considered immune from major investigations until his ego overloaded his street sense and he ran for president. The target on his back increased exponentially in size with his election and catch-me-if-you-can demeanor.

His sheer arrogance, thumbing his nose at conventional behavior and outrageous lies that could be dispelled through a single Google search, are reasons he is now under investigation for alleged civil AND criminal activities in multiple states.

Like Gotti, Trump surrounded himself with yes-men and buttocks-hugging sycophants. Now, also like in Gotti’s  case, Trump underlings are turning on him to save themselves.

Trump’s con games are not new news. Remember the lawsuit which shuttered Trump University and resulted in a multi-million-dollar settlement with disgruntled “students”? And it’s worth noting the Trump Foundation was orders closed by the State of New York after the foundation was discovered to be a personal piggy bank for the Trump clan.

Now, however, the stakes have risen dramatically for Trump and his hangers-on.

The New York attorney general has announced two important developments: 1) The civil probe of the former president has moved into the criminal arena; and 2) The AG is working with the Manhattan district attorney which helps connect dots between the investigating agencies and puts more feet, hands and brains into the case.

The question still unclear is whether the criminal investigation is against the Trump Organization as a corporate entity or is focusing on individuals, i.e., Trump, family members, other organization officials?

Stay tuned. The ride on the Trump Inquiry Train has been long and bumpy.

And that is not expected to change in the foreseeable future.

For Trump, there does not seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. There’s just a tunnel….a long, dark, isolated tunnel.

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Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming

By George Smith

Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming.

Representative.

Third ranking Republican in the House.

97 percent conservative voting rating.

98 percent of her votes backed President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Her party is turning on her for two “sins”:  She voted to impeach President Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection AND she has stated publicly the 2020 election was not stolen, that Joe Biden won fair and square, time to move on.

Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is showing her party a path — a wide, beautiful path — out of the suffocating quicksand that was the Trump’s presidency; her party leaders and party members are ignoring her gracious overtures and are prepared to toss her bodily into any handy briar patch B just to shut her up, to diminish her pulpit power.

Instead of saying “Thank God for Liz and her dose of common sense,” the party leaders and lead talkers, all irregulars in the Department of Truth, are treating her like Hester Prynne in the “Scarlet Letter.”.

In a word, this conservative woman who deeply believes in old-times Republican values and has followed the party line to the edge of her personal ethical abyss, is declared  “unclean” by her peers.

Cheney, Mitt Romney and a few other Republican House members, are putting their political futures on the line by simply telling the truth about The Big Lie of a “stolen election” that was not stolen.

This handful of Republicans clearly see three things: 1. Following the ideological whims of a disgraced, twice-impeached president is doing irreparable harm to the Republican Party and its brand; 2. Claiming the Jan. 6 insurrection was no big deal, that Russian influence in the 2016 election was a hoax and that The 2020 election was stolen is folly and party officials should move on and focus on more tangible issues; and, 3. History will paint the Trump era as a Cult of Personality and those that partook of his poisonous bare-assed charisma will forever be portrayed as mere mice following a felonious pied piper into the political wilderness.

If you are a Trumpster today, and you do not see the nakedness of your “emperor” in light of current events and judicial rulings, what outcome can you expect by sticking with a disgraced  charlatan and felonious, politician Neanderthal?

Your history and life-tags are being written as you read this: Willing victim or Stockholm Syndrome survivor: easily led patsy; duped rube; one-issue follower sand believer.

Regardless of tag you collect, you are on the wrong side of history and complicit in the unraveling of the core thread of decency that IS the United States.

Trump promised you a better America. What you got — what we all received —

was a divided nation of haves and have-nots, a racially split country in which civil rights took a huge step backwards and a nation in which winning became more important than being right or honest or ethical.

The Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney approach to saving the integrity, the very soul, of the GOP is the path out of the political wilderness that is Trump’s legacy.

How many party members will see that Cheney snd Romneybare right and that continuing to admire the manuacal misadventures of a displaced, tin-pot, woukd-be dictator, is sheer folly and guaranteed to relegate the party to the dust bin of history.

Bullmoose Party? Know Nothing? Whigs”? Federalists? Constitutional Union?

Et tu, Republican Party?

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WOKENESS

“WOKENESS”  noun [ U ] mainly US informal

US/ˈwoʊk.nəs/ UK  /ˈwəʊk.nəs/

“a state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality”

I finally looked up this stupid word that people are throwing around like a warmup ball at a baseball game; I thought I knew what it meant, but wanted the clinical definition.

Sen. Ted Cruz lambasted the proponents of “wokeness” on a weekend interview, saying it was a condition foisted upon the nation by professors in liberal colleges and universities.

No, cease and desist, that’s not right. That was Democrat consultant and self-promotimg, anything-GOP-is-bad manta spewmaster James Carville who made that pronouncement; Cruz urged folks to stand up to “wokeness” in corporate America.

To further stir the pot full of “woken”, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders said Carville opined Carville had ceased to be relevant on any issue of national importance.

Wake up on the woke issue! Why in Dick’s hat band woujd anyone be AGAINST more folks becoming aware of the extent of apparent meat-fisted societal ills like inequality and racism?

Both exist in this country, in our individual communities: That is a fact.

Every single American should be cognizant of that fact and pledge as individuals to work to bring segments of the country together rather than spout balderdashisn BS that only serve to further divide us.

The only element wrong with “wokeness”?  It is those officials and their minions who do not want the nation’s  growing abyss between political power players and their followers to shrink. An expanding division between parties, between people, positively impacts their personal  political power so they use their opposition to “wokeness” as a rallying cry and stump-speech bludgeon.

“… one nation…with liberty and justice for all.”€

Wake up to the potential of “wokeness”.

The definition of the word says it all. Tune out those that use the word as a negative cudgel to further their personal political agenda.

€ if you are wondering why I omitted “under God” from the phrase above, the nation’s founders made it clear that “separation of church snd state” was a key component to the freedoms they thought paramount in this new nation. And “under God” was only added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954.

Just another “woke” issue.

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By George Smith

Joe Biden is not a stump-screaming, mesmerizing speaker. But Wednesday night, his message was clear: The crap we’ve been doing in the past is not going to be the path to the future.

Early observation: Only a handclapful of Republicans applauded his promise to move millions of children out of poverty. 

That’s heartless, like saying newborn kittens are ugly. 

Republicans, as a political entity and a national party, not as individuals, believe in the theory of the “unwashed masses”, a grouping of folks living in poverty that want a handout, rather than a hand up.

This rather disparaging term was coined by the Victorian novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He used it in his 1830 novel “Paul Clifford”. But the phrase is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who never, apparently used those words in any published document or speech.

Lincoln was quoted as saying, iterations include this quote: “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves. – Abraham Lincoln” 

He never uttered those words, at least that have never been recorded.

In as early as 1967, the misattribution was explained in a congressional record. The text from the document explains that a list of ten points attributed to Lincoln “sprang from the imagination of Rev. William J. H. Boetcher, who copyrighted and printed them in 1916.”  

The report blames the Committee for Constitutional Government for having started the misattribution by selling and circulating “the spurious quotations and, thus, earned the dubious honor of having first associated Lincoln with the maxims.” 

This might explain why: The committee was a lobby created in 1937 against Franklin D. Roosevelts’ court-packing plan, part of his New Deal programs to respond to the Great Depression.

For decades, in columns and editorials, I used the “unwashed masses” phrase and attributed it to Lincoln. It’s amazing how research and reading can change personal reality.

I am hopeful today that our elected leaders can get past petty partisan politics and work together on programs desperately needed to fix the country’s ills.

Working together, in harmony, any chore becomes easier. The nation needs healing in so many ways. Now’s the time to reach across the political aisle and do what’s in the best interests of the country, not any one political party.

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H.R. 1, now making its way through Congress, would make it easier for every citizen of the United States to vote.

Yes! That’s what we want in a democratic republic, right? Every citizen has a voice!!!

Well, not all of us want every eligible person to freely and easily vote. The Republican Party, as a national entity and in most states controlled by GOP elected officials, want laws to make it a harder process for people to vote.

They call it “election integrity,” but call it what it is — voter ejection or suppression.

Without a problem, the GOP is pushing it own personal “elect us only” solution.

Anyway you slice it, define it or will have a positive shape or spin on it, the Republicult is interested in one thing and one thing only: keeping the number of minorities that are eligible to vote to a minimum.

For they now know that without a fundamental change in the underpinnings of the party foundation, and without acknowledging and embracing the demographics changes in the country, their basic tenets for governing does not fit the philosophy of a majority of Americans.

They desire an uneven playing field rather than check their basic white-is-right attitude outside the political arena and do not want the will of the people to decide the future paths the country should travel.

What they seek is not democracy but a more subtle form of fascism.

Whatever you call it, it ain’t right and it goes against the principles that define America as a beacon of freedom and democracy.

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By George Smith — 3/23/2021

How else can anyone explain the Republican push to inhibit voting by creating roadblocks to discourage every possible citizen from voting?

This was a recent headline in a major publication: “Republican Voter Suppression Efforts Are Targeting Minorities, “. This is not liberal hogwash; it is a fact based on laws being pushed or passed in states with legislatures that are predominately Republican.

Why? Why would any party try and prevent folks from voting? In this case, the answer is simple: For the GOP headknockers, it seems to be easier to exclude voters than move the ideological bar of the party to appeal to a larger segment of citizens.

It apparently does not bother GOP  party stalwarts that preventing entire groups of people designated by either race or religion or sex from voting is, by any degree or standard, an unAmerican activity. 

The United States is a democracy, a democratic socialist republic that hinges its very existence on the “will of the people.” Its very existence as a true democracy depends on citizen participation at every level of government.

The GOP has shown its reluctance to change as the nation’s demographics and cultural mores have changed; it would rather fight — and lose — than change. The party would rather curb freedom than accept that change is inevitable; if there is no change, the alternatives are stagnation or decline.

Stagnation. Decline. Both words are apt descriptions of the Republican party, circa 2021.

Today’s Republican Party is flailing around like a broken-wing, spavined gnat, with no clear direction and no clear purpose. The party and its elected representatives are edging closer to being a lackluster, ineffective megaphone for a party with a mouthy majority of racists, bigots, conspiracy theorists and plain ol’ “aginners”, those brainless  know-nothings whose entire life philosophy is pinned to the notion “I ain’t fir it, so I must be agin it.”

The Era of Trump brought unwieldy change to the party, but it was change that took the party away from

its historic roots of small government, free trade, maintaining a strong international presence and a balanced national budget.

Now, right now, the party must reverse course if it intends to remain a viable nation political force.

But, sadly, it won’t as long as the leaders worship at the image of Donald Trump. And that shadow of a human being is not going to walk away from the spotlight of celebrity. He has tasted the power of mob exhumation and he still craves the feeling it gives  him.

Trump is not going anywhere. And, it seems, his subjects are in no hurry to cast him out.

To quote Mr. T from TV’s A-Team, “I pity the fools!”

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By Ron Munden — 3/16/2021

Yes!  Unforced errors can cost you an election.  Let me give you an example.  President Trump totally bungled the CODID-19 response.  He was not reelected to a second term.  I strongly believe that Trump would be President today if he had not made this unforced error.

Unfortunately, President Biden appears to be following in Trump’s footsteps when it comes to unforced errors.In fact I fear Biden is outperforming Trump in this area.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say I don’t like writing this article.  I voted for Biden.  I had high hopes for him.  I want him to be reelected but because of his unforced errors I see the chances of that fading away just 50 days into his administration.

Today all the oxygen in Washington is being consumed by the immigration problems at the southern border.  Biden finds himself with that problem because of an unforced error he made.  He decided to take on the complex issue of immagration  in his first 100 days.  Unfortunately this mistake may insure he is a one term President and the Republicans did not have to lift a finger.

Years back when I worked for a living,  one of my rules of engagement was — never take ownership of someone else’s problem until you have a well throughout plan for solving that problem.

At this point I am reminded of Colin Powel’s pottery barn rule — if you break it. You own it.

Some may say Biden had to take on immigration now.  That is not the case.  Sure the immigration policy for the US needs work  but not now.  Biden needed a well thought out solution before he broke the pot.

A flawed statuesque is always better as a solution than uncontrolled chaos.

Whoever advised Biden to make this a top priority might look for other work.  Clearly this is not his strong suit.  I don’t recommend shifting the blame.  The person that the top should be the first to get the blame if they signed off of  the approach.

So expanding of Powell’s pottery barn story:

Very early in his administration, Joe Biden picked up the immigration pot and hammer.  Without much thought he used a hammer (sometimes called an executive order) to break the pot.  Shocked by the smell of the liquid in the pot which was running over his hands, he lost his balance. While trying to regain his balance, he stepped into a mature pile that he had not noticed.

So now Joe finds himself with shit on his shoes, god knows what on his hands and a broken pot.

This is the story of an unforced error.

I wish I could suggest a solution.  I can’t. I do know is that fixing the immigration problem has become a lot more difficult because Joe broke that pot.

Sadly, that at this point Joe does not smell very good.

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